


Star Wars Episode 9 - Dawn of the Force

by EllieCarina



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Fix It, Gen, Movie Redo, Synopsis, episode 9 fix it, fragments, not strictly prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 06:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28346964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieCarina/pseuds/EllieCarina
Summary: I finally sat down to write my personal fix-it for the (for me personally) frustrating 9th instalment of the saga.***In short: A dark and mysterious new threat rises in the galaxy as Supreme Leader Kylo Ren faces dissent from within the First Order and Rey fights her own descent into darkness.***Opening Crawl:It has been a year since Supreme Leader Kylo Ren seized control of the First Order and thereby the power over the galaxy. While his generals govern with cruelty and corruption, Kylo Ren is preoccupied with his vendetta against the growing Resistance, led by his mother Leia Organa and his nemesis, Rey of Jakku.Rey continues her Jedi training under the tutelage of Leia, while a dark presence has made itself known in the galaxy. Plagued by gruesome visions, Rey is determined to find the Dark Phantom and strike it down.An ancient Sith artefact kept in a vault in the First-Order occupied Citadel in Coruscant is rumoured to hide a prophecy that will reveal the secrets to unraveling the Dark Side of the Force. Rey and the Resistance incited a riot in the capitol to distract from a covert mission to retrieve it…***Synopsis-style / fragmentary
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	1. Act One

**Author's Note:**

> This has bothered me for a literal year but I finally sat down to fix Episode 9 for myself and spun what we got, what we speculated about and what makes narrative sense to me into a story that I think works a bit more coherently than what we were given in the official 9th episode of the Skywalker Saga.
> 
> I wrote it down like a synopsis/pitch paper for a movie script - which means that in many places, it will lack detail and depth. But just like a movie, I hope you will imagine it visually and fill in the blanks. 
> 
> In one or two spots I couldn't help but provide dialogue, fragments are also taken from some of my earlier work (namely "Across The Stars"). Also this has a Reylo-focus but I think the story leaves enough space for all the characters to shine.
> 
> It's - in its current form - also a kind of head canon and I would love to hear if it vibes with yours or if you feel inspired to further develop aspects of this. 
> 
> All of this to say, getting this down on paper really helped me. I will never watch TROS again but after getting this out of my system, I might be able to rewatch TLJ. I hope you enjoy it and maybe it'll heal your heart a little bit as well.
> 
> I deeply appreciate each and every feedback.

**Opening Crawl:**

It has been a year since Supreme Leader Kylo Ren seized control of the First Order and thereby the power over the galaxy. While his generals govern with cruelty and corruption, Kylo Ren is preoccupied with his vendetta against the growing Resistance, led by his mother Leia Organa and his nemesis, Rey of Jakku.

Rey continues her Jedi training under the tutelage of Leia, while a dark presence has made itself known in the galaxy. Plagued by gruesome visions, Rey is determined to find the Dark Phantom and strike it down. 

An ancient Sith artefact kept in a vault in the First-Order occupied Citadel in Coruscant is rumoured to hide a prophecy that will reveal the secrets to unraveling the Dark Side of the Force. Rey and the Resistance incited a riot in the capitol to distract from a covert mission to retrieve it…

  
oOo

**Scene 1 (Ext. Day)**

Pan down on Coruscant. The streets of the government quarter are in disrepair. First Order troops are in open combat with rebels and incited citizens in a civil war-esque riot. 

Explosions everywhere, blaster beams hitting and missing, whooshing by left and right. It’s carnage and no one’s winning. Two young rebels have been pushed into an alley by a group of Stormtroopers. It’s a cul-de-sac, there’s no way out - they will die here. 

In the last moment, the Stormtroopers are overwhelmed by three other rebels in a surprise attack. Poe, Finn and Rose, armed to the teith, rescue their fellow rebels. Finn uses his comm to communicate with Rey, who is scaling the Citadel, looking for a way in. It’s getting crowded down there, she better hurry up.

**Scene 2 (Ext. Day)**

Rey switches channels, in communication with Leia in the getaway ship in atmo. She and the crew navigate Rey’s path inside the Citadel. Rey struggles. Upon finally finding an entry point, she falls - headfirst into another vision. 

**Scene 2a (Vision)**

It’s the Dark Phantom again, cutting down creatures in vicious slashes in the dark with a dark red lightsaber. The horror is unspeakable and Rey wakes up screaming and thrashing, in a supply room inside the Citadel. 

**Scene 2b (Int. Day)**

She has lost valuable time and the connection to the ship is gone. Quick now. Led by only a data cube and a weird pull of the Force, Rey goes looking for the artifact.

**Scene 3 (Ext. Day)**

Outside, the battle rages on. Finn, Poe and Rose blast their way through the streets. A large blast from incoming First Order tanks (shiny, new and deadly) forces them into a restaurant. A brief respite from the battle. Inside, they come up on the terrified owner and his family. He laments the situation, prompting Poe to tell him that they are here to deliberate the small folk. The restaurant owner says he was doing alright before they destroyed his quarter.

**Scene 4 (Ext./Int. Day)**

Kylo Ren arrives at the Citadel with his Tie fighter, having words with Hux inside the Citadel, berating him for his inaction, revealing that under his watch, the scavenger Jedi has managed to get into their headquarters. This appears to be news to Hux - a grave oversight. Kylo leaves Hux behind with some violence to apprehend Rey - he knows exactly where she’s going. 

**Scene 5 (Int. Day Space)**

Onboard the Resistance ship, a navigator alerts Leia and the rest of weird incoming signals.

**Scene 6 (Int./Ext. Day)**

Rey comes up on the vault, she can feel it in the Force, it speaks to her. Yet, neither her gadgets, nor brute force gets her inside, so she uses her powers. She has only gotten stronger and after some exertion, the vault door opens. 

She walks inside, coming upon both the artifact which she pockets and Vader’s old helmet. She is staring at it when Kylo Ren finds her, blocking off the exit. They exchange a few hostile words, lightsabers ablaze. Kylo says the artifact belongs to him and in anycase, it will be useless to her. It only opens for the worthy at a Dark Side nexus point and she won’t find one. Rey accuses him of being the Dark Phantom, Kylo doesn’t acknowledge this. 

They fight - evenly matched. They fight down the corridor and eventually Rey escapes out of a window she shatters by using the Force. Kylo follows her outside and their battle continues outside, perilously at the side of the giant building. There might be some swinging on giant First Order flags involved, in any case, it’s exciting! The two keep exchanging some words, they also talk about Leia, Kylo says he knows she is in the ship up in orbit, they can see it from their vantage point. There is bitterness there. Maybe a brief mention of how Leia has always yearned to replace him with a better child, maybe now that she has Rey she is finally happy.

  
  


**Scene 7 (Ext. Day)**

Finn, Poe and Rose make their way out of the restaurant, rejoining the action. Then, something up in the sky distracts them. The fighting halts.

**Scene 8 (Ext. Day)**

Rey and Kylo stop fighting, too. They both see the giant star destroyer that has just appeared over their heads. Kylo looks caught off guard but quickly masks it.

**Scene 9 (Int. Day Space)**

On the bridge, people panic. That’s what the reading was. This thing is too huge and it target-locked on them. They got so much fire power, they’ll blast right through their shield. Leia realises that she will die. In her last move, she closes her eyes and opens them again when -

**Scene 10 (Ext. Day)**

Leia appears as a Force projection to Rey and Kylo, saying their names (Rey & Ben) and then her last words “Nothing is impossible”. Then she disappears as overhead, a giant power beam shoots the Resistance ship down from the sky. Most of it is vaporised, but some burning debris rains down on the city. Rey turns to Kylo, shocked immeasurably. “How could you?” - “I- I didn’t-” Kylo is petrified, his Mom just died and we get the sense that he did NOT authorise this. Rey uses his confusion to escape him, possibly using one of the First Order flags to get to the ground. She needs to find her friends. They need to get off this planet, stat.

**Scene 11 (Ext. Day)**

Dodging debris, Finn, Poe, Rose and a couple of others run into Rey. There is some allusion to Finn having felt where Rey was. All of them are shocked. Leia is dead and their means of escape is gone. Rey leads them into the sewer system, guided by the Force. She manages to lead them to a shipyard where they hijack a spaceship and escape.

  
  


**Scene 12 (Int./Ext. Day)**

A general reports to Kylo Ren that they know which ship Rey is on. Kylo gets on his Tie in pursuit but before he can do any damage, it jumps to lightspeed - out of his grip. He is left stranded, alone in his Tie, flying past debris of his Mother’s ship that remained in orbit.

**Scene 13 (Int. Day Space)**

Rey on their Escape Shuttle. In shock. Finn tries to comfort her but Rey shuts him down. Rose tries to comfort Finn but he passes on the foul mood.

**Scene 14 (Int. Day)**

After returning, Kylo is being debriefed by an emboldened Hux. It’s a power struggle as Hux reveals that he has been stocking up the FO Navy without Kylo knowing. The star destroyer’s build and deployment was all his doing and Kylo can’t afford to show weakness, to reveal that the insolence and especially the death of his traitor mother gets to him. Finally, he rushes off before his emotions can betray him. Hux and a fellow underling exchange a knowing glance and Kylo proceeds to tear a far off corridor into pieces.

**Scene 15 (Vision)**

Another vision of the vicious Dark Phantom doing dark deeds, this time less killing, more skulking around in ancient halls, activating strange looking luminescent rocks, but maybe it’s also machines? Anyway, it’s old and definitely dangerous. In the shadow weird, deforemd creatures are hanging about, devout to the Dark One. The figure opens it’s arms and suddenly the cave-like dwelling lights up eerily, revealing it’s a giant dome, some sort of machine and way, way bigger than anyone imagined. It’s pulsing. The Dark one laughs, inhuman, guttural and terrifying. -- Rey wakes up drenched in sweat in her bed on base.

**Scene 16 (Int. Day)**

Rey begins her day, mellow. In her nightdress she walks through the empty base. Whoever she comes across gets out of her way. Finally, she reaches different quarters, punches in a code and enters. It’s Leia’s old quarters, not deserted. On her dinner table, there’s a letter Rey regards. 

“Dear Rey, if you are reading this letter, it means that I am dead. I know you’re going to be angry and unwilling to hear me out on this but please, do look at this chest I am leaving in your possession. He is not gone. Luke’s sacrifice proved that to me. I’m asking you to finish what he started. Unity is the only path to peace. I must believe that. May the Force be with you, Rey, always. Leia.”

Rey eyes the chest, we understand she has shunned opening it before. It says “Ben” in a child’s hand, etched into the wood and we understand why. Muttering, Rey opens it begrudgingly. If Leia knew that her son had her killed, would she still want her to “save” him? However the contents of the chest soften her somewhat. A calligraphy set, a small wookie doll, a lock of hair (a cut-off Padawan braid), Han’s dice, another letter, in a boy’s handwriting. “Can I please come back home now, Momma? I swear I’ll be good this time. - Ben”

Rey feels the pain, but it’s too much. She turns away and wanders through Leia’s quarters, coming upon her dressing room. Rey finds Leia’s dresses, comes upon a cloak and touches it. 

  
  


**Scene 17 (Ext. Day)**

Rey, now wearing the coat, joins the resistance outside the base on their new planet (wooded area, the base is a discarded research facility built into a mountain next to a waterfall). On a hill under a giant tree, everyone has gathered to lay Leia and the other people that died to rest. There is only a symbolic monolith to mark the spot - there were no bodies to bury.

The funeral begins. Finn steps up to Rey. They whisper apologies to each other as the rest of the gang join. Then Finn gets flustered. That’s none other than Lando stepping up to say something. Rey asks who that is, Finn explains. Lando gives a speech. Behind him are people that look like his children - a man and twin women.

“A lifetime ago, I fought side by side with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and General Organa against Darth Vader and the Empire. But when the First Order emerged, I chose not to get involved. I felt I needed to keep my people safe and kept out of harm’s way. I received the General’s call to aid last year and I’m deeply ashamed that I did not heed it. I should have. Now I’ll never have a chance to say goodbye to my very dear friend, to… To our princess. Or tell her how sorry I am. But I know that if she were with us now, she would -not so gently- slap the back of my head and tell me that at least now that I’m here, I can get on and do my part. So let me promise you today: What’s mine is yours. My people, my resources, my connections. We will stand with you and make sure that Leia’s death has not been in vain.”

Poe goes up to him and thanks him, and says that he is now taking over the mantle of general, as requested by Leia in the event of her death. They all take a moment to think of the fallen, then the crowd dissipates. Rey and Finn stay behind, Poe and Rose attempt to join them but Finn waves them off. He asks Rey if he can do anything, she shuts him down and reveals the artifact in her pocket and that she blames herself for Leia’s death because it was all for that stupid thing and her attempt off getting it. She got so many people killed… Finn tries to argue, saying everyone made their choices, the artifact is important, because it will show them the way to victory, to defeat the dark side, Kylo Ren and the ominous, looming threat of the Dark Phantom. Rey asks to be alone and Finn obliges. Upon leaving, he takes the artifact and says they’ll hook it up to their machines in the command bay to see if they get any intel out of it. 

When the scene has cleared completely, Rey walks to the monolith and touches it. Kylo Ren appears in their Force bond-connection. Great, just what she needed!

Rey: Go. Away.

Kylo: Rey.

Rey: No. All you have done for the last year is try to kill me, to kill us! And now you want… what, forgiveness? I won’t give that to you. Not today.

Kylo: I never meant for this to happen, you have to believe me. I didn’t--

Rey: Well, it did. That was _your_ ship, your fleet. She’s dead because of you.

Kylo: Can you not feel that I’m in agony? That I’m suffering? 

Rey: Yeah, so am I. So is everybody. The whole damn galaxy. We’re all suffering.

Kylo: (quiet, pained, this revelation breaks free unbidden) I just want it to stop.

Rey: Aren’t you the Supreme Leader?! Make it stop.

(pause)

Kylo: You shouldn’t have declined my offer.

Rey: Don’t you dare put this on me! It was you who turned your back when you chose this path. I wanted you to come back with me! To come home. Your mother wanted that!

Kylo: She abandoned me, just like you did. After everything I did for you, after I gave you everything I had left.

Rey: And yet here we are: You have the entire galaxy under your thumb and I have an empty grave to mourn your mother. You gave me nothing. You took. Everything. Han. Luke. Now Leia. They’re all gone. Because you wanted to play Emperor. Now you have to live with that.

Rey takes Han’s dice from the pocket of Leia’s robe and throws them at Kylo’s feet. Realising what it was, Kylo surprisingly goes down on his knees, half a breakdown. Rey is perplexed, her perception of him shifting. He really is devastated. Somewhat helpless, she touches his shoulder.

**Scene 18 (Vision)**

Through the touch, Rey gets brief glimpses of Ben’s past, memories of a younger Leia hugging her young son, an eight-year-old Ben leaping into her arms on a wide open field that looks like Naboo. A young Han is there, too. A happy family, the last happy familial memory Ben can recall. Han is teaching him how to fight with a stick. Leia is smiling.

**Scene 19 (Ext. Day)**

The vision ends when Rey is rattled by Kylo closing his arms around her legs, his face buried in her coat. He stills. “You’re wearing her clothes. Why are you wearing her clothes?” Kylo jumps back as if shocked, they share a long look, then Rose calls out for Rey, appearing out of breath. Something is happening with the artifact. Kylo has heard this, his features harden, Rey shuts him out and he disappears. She runs to Rose.

**Scene 20 (Int. Day Space)**

On Kylo Ren’s star destroyer, _Ascendance_ , he is furious and exits his corners, making his way down a corridor until he bursts into a meeting room where Hux and some high ranking generals are having a meeting. They fall silent when he enters. Hux recovers first, commenting on what a surprise it is that Kylo Ren has deemed their meeting worthy to join. Kylo shoots back that he’s come to learn that the Resistance has apparently made progress on the artifact, something the First Order had previously failed to. It’s tense and Kylo Ren is angry, ordering the group to heighten their efforts to find the Resistance base.

  
  


**Scene 21 (Int. Day)**

In the command bay, Rose and Rey hurry to the artifact. It’s hooked up to a bunch of cables, glowing green (much like the ancient dome from the Dark Phantom’s vision). Konnix informs them that it just started doing that a while ago. It’s messing with the tech in the bay. R2D2 and BB8 are beeping all confused. Threepio has problems speaking. Once Rey get’s close, it glows brighter and she decides to take it with her, as she takes it off the cables, it shocks her, falls to the ground and shatters, leaving only a green, glowing pyramid with inscriptions. Gathering herself, Rey picks it up. She can’t read that. Threepio, now back in tip top shape, enlightens them: This is Old Sith, the Dark Language. He can decipher it. He says this piece is like a key, for a lock that will reveal the Truth of the Force. Like Kylo Ren says, it’s pointing to a location, a nexus of the Dark Side. The planet Dathomir, where Darth Vader had built his castle. Rey declares that she will go there to figure it all out.

**Scene 22 (Int. Day)**

Poe readies Rey’s ship, talks to Rose as Finn and Rey talk in the distance. They talk about Rey being stressed and angry often. Rose seems a little jealous. In the distance, Finn asks Rey, apparently not for the first time, to come with her, but she insists that she must go alone. She’s putting no one else in danger because of that artifact. She finally boards the X-wing with BB8 and her friends watch her fly off, worried.

  
  


  
  



	2. Act Two

**Scene 23 (Int./Ext. Day)**

Rey jumps into hyperspace and out of it, near Dathomir. The dark planet is deserted and she flies towards Vader’s old palace. Once she exits the x-wing, she feels woozy, a pulsing sounds overwhelms her and she topples over.

**Scene 24 (Vision)**

Another Dark Phantom vision, brief this time, a different planet, a different carnage. More creatures behind her. It’s a burning forest, the ground covered in bodies. Their wounds start glowing green, then they rise from the Dead, following the Dark Phantom on it’s path, their black cape flowing. 

**Scene 25 (Ext. Day)**

Rey comes to on Dathomir, right at the gates of Vader’s castle. In her hand, the pyramid glows, calling out to her. She follows, breaking into the castle using the Force. Lines of green on the floor and the walls of the palace guide the way, they’re embedded in the stones like vines, like roots. Rey walks and walks, it’s a dark place, she is visibly uneasy. The roots lead her to a large hall, off of that, there is another corridor, at the end, all roots combine into a knot. Rey touches the wall, feels for an opening and one opens, pyramid-shaped. Rey puts the pyramid in and steps back. First, nothing happens, then a portal opens. The roots and vines glow, the colours changing softly from green to white as a path opens out into a black void. 

**Scene 26 (???)**

Rey hesitates briefly, then steps through. As she walks, shapes emerge, other pathways, a sense of space and endlessness. What is this place?

Rey keeps walking and passes a couple of oddly shaped gates, there are glimpses of weird things left and right, Rey pauses here and there but something draws her on. There is one portal that catches her attention. She walks through it, into a swamp, towards a lake. There is a creature waiting for her there.

**Scene 27 (Ext. Night)**

Rey comes upon a giant, ugly creature, who introduces itself as “The Oracle”. The scene is ominous but somehow lighthearted. Much needed comic-relief. The Oracle’s “I’ve seen it all and I’m bored by y’all’s mortal fears” plays against Rey’s dead serious hunger for answers. (Think: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, who seeks the wisdom of the Oracle?! Bla, bla, bla, every other millenia I’m having the same conversation…”) After letting Rey work for it a little, the Oracle reveals that there is no light, no dark, there is only the Force. And the Force is in everything and everyone. Some just have access to it, some are not aware of that access. Ideally, the Force is like connective tissue, like a neural network connecting all living things. 

But eons ago, a Dark Being poisoned that network and cut if off from lesser beings, attempting to use it’s power for itself. That’s how the original darkness entered the galaxy. However, the Force is powerful and created Powerful Light to keep everything in balance, seeking to use beings strong enough to carry it, to allow the Force to create balance through that being. Rey says she has heard about that prophecy and that it hadn’t worked. Neither Anakin, nor Luke had brought balance. 

The Oracle answers that’s because the Jedi and the Sith got the prophecy wrong from the start. The Balance comes with two, always two. A Force Dyad - that’s the only way the Force can both be carried by organisms (too much for just one being) and is strong enough to overpower the Dark One, who can harness the network to amass an army. The Oracle says that every other generation, there is a Force Dyad, and those that will guide them along their ways, those that will bring them into being. The Oracle says that the Jedi prophecy was essentially correct, but history had created an oversight. (“I believe they fell pray to the fallacy of the Chosen  _ One _ . Anakin Skywalker was supposed to bring balance to the Force and he would have - but when the man fathers twins, two powerful Force users, a dyad... the Jedi failed to see and simply let the girls talents go to waste. It’s a good thing the balance doesn’t just rest on one legacy anymore.”)

This is how Rey understands that she might be a part of that Force Dyad and demands to know who the other one is. The Oracle says she must know but she refuses to acknowledge it. She says it’s impossible and that she knows Kylo Ren is lost, she already gave him the chance to join her but he refused. She says she believes he could be the Dark One. The Oracle says it’s given her all that it could, the rest she had to figure out for herself but to be on guard, not everything is what it seems. One of it’s weird leg/arms things twitch and Res is send back through the portal, the void and back into Dathomir. Now with a new mission: To find someone to be her Force Dyad-partner. If it can’t be Kylo and everyone theoretically has access to the Force, there has to be another way… and she already has an idea.

**Scene 28 (Ext. Day)**

Finn and Rose are working on something together in the woods, when Rey joins them. They are surprised to see her back. Rey doesn’t bither with pleasantries and reveals to Finn that she is conviced that they are a Force Dyad, that she needs to train him in the Force. She ushers him with her - leaving Rose behind. 

**Scene 29 (Ext. Day)**

In the forest near the base, Rey tries to awaken the Force in Finn. There’s sparks of it but it’s not going great. He is not a natural and she’s riding him way too hard. (Rey: “YOU HAVE TO TELL THEM TO BE WITH YOU!” Finn: “WHO?????”) Rose watches from a distance. Frustrated. She overhears Poe nearby describing the need for a mission. There are some whispers on a large scale operation somewhere in the outer rim, masses of steel being amassed for… something. He needs someone to go undercover in one of the Outer Rim trading stations to pick up more intel. On a whim, Rose volunteers. She says she has a contact who still owns her a favour.

**Scene 30 (Int. Day)**

Later in the hangar bay, Finn finds her, exhausted and pissed off. What is she thinking asking DJ of all people for help? The man who betrayed them for credits. Word has traveled on base that she contacted him through Maz’ channels. Rose, Iliya, one of Lando’s daughters and Maz are just about to leave and meet up at their rendezvous point. Rose argues that DJ knows all the right people and his loyalties are easily bought. She just intends to be the highest bidder on it. Plus, she’s taking Chewbacca for security. They get into an argument, in the course of which, it becomes clear that the romantic entanglement these two have suffers from Finn’s devotion to Rey. Rose leaves with “I’m not a consolation prize”. Then she’s off and Finn, even more frustrated, gets back to training.

**Scene 31 (Int. Day Space)**

Maz, Chewy, Iliya and Rose travel to the rendezvous spot and meet DJ there. A brief conversation about terms, loyalty and betrayal. The three women and the Wookie threaten DJs life with everything they’ve got. He talks again about how he’s not on any side but his own and that he looks out for his self-interest. In his word, having Maz, the Wookie and the Calrissian woman there, is reason enough to not step out of line. They all get into smuggler garb and travel on.

**Scene 32 (Int. Day Space)**

Kylo checks in on the progress regarding the base, then stalks off, trying to meditate with Vader’s helmet. It’s giving him nothing. He tries to reach Rey but gets only glimpses. She is blocking him out. He pauses, a worried look on his face. Something has felt off. He goes to examine and old Sith scroll urgently.

**Scene 33 (Int. Day Space)**

Hux watches Kylo rummage around in dusty old books with disgust, apparently spying on him via a hidden camera, and types something into his com and then asks a General via Holo about “the progress”. “All according to plan, soon all systems will be functional,” is his answer. 

**Scene 34 (Int. Night)**

Rose and the rest arrive at Calyps Station, a giant space station built between two asteroids. It’s a busy and nasty trading post filled with scum and villainy. DJ takes the women in their disguises on his usual round. 

**Scene 35 (Int. Night)**

In a crowded cantina, he points Rose to the bar, there’s a couple of drinking smugglers that run the edge of the outer rim. They’re less inclined to answer him but Rose might get something out of them. Rose braces herself and tries to flirt information out of them. It starts awkward and painful but when Iliya jumps to her aid, they are getting somewhere. Off to the side, Maz and DJ have some more words, reminiscing the last time they worked together. It was that night when Maz set out to steal Luke’s lightsaber from a recently rogue Ben Solo. There might be a flashback.

Rose and Iliya return with intel. She relays it to Maz and DJ.

**Scene 36 (Int. Day)**

The scene transforms, Rose is now back at the Resistance base, debriefing Poe and the rest. Apparently, there is a giant operation underway on a builder’s planet. A big fleet of Star Destroyers is being built, large ships like the one that took out Leia, enough to eviscerate all uprising before long. She has been given rough coordinates. Poe orders a reconnaissance mission and says he’ll go with them. 

Finn wants to join, Rey says he can’t, they need to train. She’s really adamant and unforgiving about this. Fleets won’t matter at all, the Dark Side is a much bigger threat and without the Force Dyad, they’re all doomed. Finn claims she’s barking up the wrong tree - he’s not a Jedi, he’s not good enough and he’s got about enough of seeing that disappointment in her eyes. He says he’ll do what he’s good at and joins Poe, Rose, Maz, BB8, Iliya, her twin sister Jeiyna and Luka, their brother. Rey watches on, angry.

**Scene 37 (Ext. Day)**

Rey trains on her own and is joined by Lando. He challenges her to spar, citing his talent fighting with sticks. As they fight, Rey asks him about the fight against the Empire, how he kept faith and what it felt like to win. He says after all these years he doesn’t think they really won. They just shifted things… just swung the pendulum and now it’s swung back. He thinks there can never be peace until the pendulum stops altogether. 

**Scene 38 (Ext. Day)**

Poe tells the crew that he knows someone on the planet they’re suspecting the operation, if on the other side of it. But he expects the woman to know about the comings and goings. It’s revealed like this that Poe used to smuggle weapons for a time until he broke away from the group to join the Resistance. His acquaintance, Zorri, at first isn’t happy about him finding her at all. Which is evident because she pretty much blasts their shuttle out of the sky. Poe pleads his case and Zorri eventually relents, getting her associate Babu Frik on the repairs to the shuttle while she tells the group what she knows about the shipyard on the other side of the planet.

They don’t trade with them because they’re First Order and the pay is shitty, but there have been raids - they’re amassing steel and coal to power their machines, the fleet they’re building is massive and from what she’s heard they are just about ready to ship out. They’ve got heaps of Stormtroopers there. Zorri calls it the Cradle. Supposedly the program that took children from all over to make them into troopers was done, but she still hears of new crops popping up every now and then. Finn wonders if maybe it was on this planet that he was trained. Babu Frik returns, their ship is ready. Zorri agrees to accompany them to the shipyard and training academy.

**Scene 39 (Int./Ext. Night)**

The crew arrives at a cliffy waterside. The ocean is black and angry, waves high as houses. The shuttle is perched on the side of one of the cliffs. Poe, Zorri, BB8 and the Calrissians head out. Maz and Rose stay behind. Finn and Rose say goodbye to each other and make up. (Finn kisses her goodbye and says she has never been a second choice for him. He wants to tell her so much more-- Rose tells him to tell her when he gets back and to be careful.) Finn joins the others as they scale the mountain to get a better look at the operation. It really is much, much greater than anticipated - and mad scary. What is Kylo Ren planning?! They come upon a trash chute and decide to examine - maybe they’ll get a path inside one of the buildings.

**Scene 40 (Int. Night)**

The gang enters a dark corridor via the trash chute, it’s deserted. Finn feels uneasy. This seems familiar. They pass some rooms with bunk beds stacked high, in them are sleeping boys and girls. They’re all no older than ten. They’ve gotten into the academy! Finn takes over, looking for a records room. He says it’s to find intel on the fleet but really, he has a different plan. They split up. Eventually, Jeiyna finds a server room and Luka helps Poe and Finn get in as they keep watch. Poe finds something about a shipping out date - he’s worried. This says it’s just a day away until the fleet is complete. Something big is coming. He says they need to go and warn the Resistance. Finn stalls. He’s looking for his own record in the database, and what’s more, he reveals that he has a sister. they were separated into different battalions but he wants to know if she’s still alive and here, perchance. Because this is Star Wars and the plot is convenient, she’s actually stationed there. 

Poe and Finn argue. Poe urges him to hurry because they NEED to get back but Finn says he NEEDS to get his sister out. Really, it’s just a quick detour.

**Scene 41 (Int. Night)**

Rey is thrashing in bed, another vision, another nightmare. It’s the Dark Phantom again, only this time, it’s not the hunter, it’s being hunted. There’s flashes of red, blaster bolts slashing through the air. One cloaked figure hunting another. And then finally: Kylo Ren’s face. Rey wakes up. She knew it! Kylo is the Dark One after all!

**Scene 42 (Int. Night)**

Kylo wakes up from a nightmare in his quarters, alarmed.

**Scene 43 (Int. Night)**

Finn breaks into the quarters of one KS-387 and rouses the woman. She recognises him, despite all odds. But it’s not a nice welcome. She greets him as a traitor. They argue. Finn says he’s there to liberate her. He is free now, too. KS-387 argues that she has nothing to be liberated from. The First Order has raised her, provided for her. She is a part of the troopers by choice and the Resistance slaughters them viciously. She talks about the “massacre of Coruscant”, where Rebels murdered countless Stormtroopers with no regard or mercy. She doesn’t need to be liberated, she needs to keep her fellow soldiers safe from the Resistance because they are her family. Finn says he is her family. She says not anymore, he betrayed them to the Resistance. And now he will pay for it. Alarm blares. She has ratted them out!

**Scene 44 (Int. Night)**

Finn and the rest flee through the academy, facing off against Stormtroopers and First Order generals. It’s hairy but they manage to make it out of the trash chute, sliding right into the hovering shuttle. On board, Finn has a moment of reckoning. His sister is lost to the Stormtroopers it seems and also: “But she’s right. I don’t even know… how many Troopers I’ve shot down. Not just on Coruscant but since I defected. Anyone of them could have been my sister. Anyone of them could have been someone I grew up with. Some other kid that was taken from their parents to be brainwashed, some other kid that was just trying to protect their friends.” The mood is grim after that.

**Scene 45 (Int. Night)**

Rey is in the comm’s room, looking through recon pictures and maps. Konnix finds her. Rey tells her she knows where the Dark Phantom is, she can finally place the planet! She has been there before. She informs Konnix that she’s taking an X-wing to find him. Before Konnix can do anything, Rey has stormed off.

**Scene 46 (Ext. Day)**

Rey arrives on the planet she could place. It’s a rocky mining world with giant rocks sticking into the air and an impenetrable, dense and toxic jungle underneath. Stations and hubs have been built on and between the rocks, in structures that are so easily recognizable that Rey knows what the planet is, having been there once before. She stalks around, looking for the hideout of the Dark Phantom.

  
  


**Scene 47 (Ext. Day)**

Having not come far, Rey is intercepted by Kylo Ren. She fights him, no questions asked, believing him to be the Dark One. During the fight, he tries to tell her that it’s not him and that she won’t like the truth once she gets to it. Rey gets more and more aggressive in the fight, eventually gaining ground on Kylo and striking him in the stomach with his own lightsaber. He topples over, fatally hit. Rey snaps out of her anger but doesn’t help him. The ground has started glowing green and she follows it to an opening in one of the rocks, leaving Kylo Ren for dead.

**Scene 48 (Vision)**

Fighting for his life, Kylo Ren has a vision of his past, a sort-of-reckoning of the pain he’s caused. Starkiller Base, Lor Sen Tekka and lastly Han. A feverish and dying Kylo hallucinates his late father then and apologizes. The mirage welcomes him to the beyond (“It’s alright son, you can come home now. You have fought so hard for long enough.”) but then the mirage shifts into something more real: It’s Luke’s Force Ghost.

**Scene 49 (Ext. Day)**

Luke heals Kylo though the Force, saving his life, but only barely. He tells Kylo he needs to get back on his ship because his fight isn’t over yet and to prepare for the biggest one he has ever had to suffer. Kylo asks why Luke saved him. Luke says it’s the least he can do after having failed him in life. Now that he has left the mortal realm, he understands that he had been too afraid of the darkness in Kylo and thus, he failed both his nephew and his calling. He implores Kylo to not make the same mistake. He tells him that he and Rey are the answer and they can only create balance together. (“We had it wrong, kid, all of us.”) Kylo gets up to shaky knees and looks after where Rey went. Luke tells him to let her go and get his strength back, he’s gonna need it.

**Scene 50 (Int. Day)**

Below, Rey has been climbing down the cave and finally comes upon a small opening in the rocks that now opens into the giant rocky dome from her vision. It’s now filled with weirdly looking spaceships and scrawling with critters, both flying and walking. A terrifying alien life form, all of them covered in glowing green veins. Rey missteps and a small rock falls into the dark. Now everything is alight, she has been made, the creatures flitter to her, a giant green light blinds her and then everything goes to black.

**Scene 51 (Ext./Int. Day)**

Finn, Poe and the rest of the crew return to base to relay what they know. They learn that Rey is missing, but before a search party forms, they get a distress call from contacts on Coruscant. A giant fleet has appeared in orbit over the government quarter. A bunch of Super Star Destroyers - and troops have started rounding up non-humans. Something bad is happening and they need the Resistance’s help. Everyone saddles up, Lando Calrissian and a couple of others break apart, promising to acquire some more help.

**Scene 52 (Ext. Night)**

Kylo Ren steps out of a bacta tank, dressing himself back into full garb, only to be apprehended by hosts of Stormtroopers. He fights valiantly, dropping many despite his shock. Then Hux enters but before Kylo can do anything Force-wise, Hux uses a tranq-gun, to render him unmobile. As Kylo is still awake but can’t move, Hux reveals his “supervillain” plan. Kylo has inspired neither loyalty nor love within the first order. His only source of power was Snoke because he emerged when the Empire started rebuilding. But the men in power think nothing of the Jedi, the Sith or anyone talented with the Force. They are just more abnormals. The human race obviously is the only one that can have order and secure a functioning civilisation. So starting now, Hux is the head of the First Order. They will clean out the streets, put the non-humans back under the heel where they belong and rid the universe of any and all Force-users. 

Hux also declares that Kylo will be held in a cell until it’s time. After his big speech declaring the new universe order, Kylo will be sentenced to death and executed on the Monument Plaza.

**Scene 53 (Int. Space/ Ext. Night)**

The Resistance fleet arrives near Coruscant, in hiding behind a moon. A recon ship with Finn, Chewy, the Calrissian kids, and some others sneaks into the atmosphere to reach the government quarter from the other side of Coruscant. They manage to get on the ground in disguises. Finn reports back on what’s happening on the ground. Non-humans are being carted away while the humans are all pushed towards Monument Plaza. 

There, Hux begins a passionate, scary speech about his new reign. It’s even more Nazi than the one in TFA, we’re fully going with that now. Finn and Poe are talking over the comm, this is a terrifying development. Funny that Kylo Ren wasn’t the biggest threat the First Order posed, after all. (“Maybe he was the reason this hasn’t happened sooner.” - “Let’s not give him too much credit.”)

They wonder if they can stop it. Poe says they have to try. 

**Scene 54 (Int. Space)**

Poe sends out a distress call, pleading for every ship that doesn’t want this new order to come join them in Coruscant and fight. They get no response.

**Scene 55 (Int. Night)**

Kylo breaks out of his cell being a badass and fighting the tranquilizer. He tries to escape the building undetected but can only escape up because the streets are filled with Stormtroopers and people.

**Scene 56 (Ext. Night)**

Finn decides if they’re not getting help, he can at least cut off the snake’s head and decides to get to higher ground to sniper blast Hux. As he breaks away from the other rebels, commotion starts. A portal opens opposite of Hux on Monument Plaza and the crowd jumps apart. Through the portal comes the Dark Phantom, followed by the weird creatures (some of them are possibly Zombie-like fallen humans and aliens). The phantom’s inhuman voice bellows across the square, a laugh… at Hux, at the First Order, at the humans playing their sandbox games. It’s a nice attempt but ultimately futile. The age of petty power struggles is over. Now there is only darkness. 

**Scene 57 (Ext. Night)**

Finn has reached a rooftop, just in time to see Hux give the order to shoot at the Dark One. It’s not effective. The cloaked figure and its minions remain unscathed, emerging from the smoke of the attack. That’s when Finn is joined on the roof by Kylo! He has just crossed over from another roof. Finn is about to fight him but Kylo puts him in a body bind and tells him to focus. He needs to worry about another Force user right now. Kylo reveals to Finn that the figure down there should be familiar to him. Luckily Finn has his cool sniper blaster with him (and maybe even binoculars). 

This way he can study the figure down at the Plaza that is still advancing on Hux. (The people flanking the figure slowly start glowing with green veins and stop moving. Finn realises with a start: It’s Rey! Kylo says it’s not - but whatever it is, it’s using Rey for her power, taking over her body. Finn must have noticed Rey has been drifting off for a while. Agressive, aloof, distracted. The two men realize they probably know her best in the world.

Kylo says he can take her - or whatever has her in his grasp - on, but he needs Finn’s help. Can Finn trust him? To save Rey? Finn begrudgingly agrees.   
  



	3. Act Three

**Scene 58 (Ext. Night)**

DARK REY, now revealed keeps walking towards a steadily retreating Stormtrooper blockade. Kylo and Finn break out into the square. The other people there are immobile and now Zombie-like too. Finn get’s distracted, glowing green. Kylo tells him to snap out of it. He has the Force, too, he can block the influence. (Finn is briefly surprised, Kylo says: “What, you didn’t know?”) Anyway, there’s no time. Kylo tells Finn he needs to distract Rey so he can have the drop on her.

Finn does exactly that. He tries to talk to Rey, she stops talking. There is a sense of Rey beneath the Dark Force, trying to break free. But the Dark Force seems to win. Just as she powers up lightning powers, presumably to kill Finn, Kylo jumps her from behind. They start to fight. (Rey powers up her lightsaber and it turns from Luke’s blue to bright red, it’s really cool!)

They do that for a while. Rey is besting him, but Kylo has a different target. He parrs an attack so that he can hold her lightsaber arm down and grip her by the neck to bring her forehead to his. The FORCE BOND/DYAD kicks into gear. Suddenly they’re in a sort of different dimension. It’s daylight and they’re standing in the grown over ruins of Monument Plaza. You get the idea that this is the future, if the Dark One really wins. It will destroy the whole universe. 

Rey and Kylo stay in the same position, forehead to forehead, talking soft. It’s not a long scene but it matters. It’s all in the eyes, in the proximity, too. Rey apprehensive about Kylo being so close, then that giving way to helplessness, she knows she is possessed, the darkness has gotten a hold of her, she can’t stop, she can’t fight. Kylo says he can, he says they can. Luke has told him. It’s the truth they both know, that she can’t keep running from. They are destined to fight together. Darkness and Light to meet it. They are the light, both of them. They’re the Force Dyad and together, they can do it.

Rey wants to believe but then the power takes over. They are thrown back out. They fight more. It’s not long but it escalates quickly. Eventually, Dark Rey has Kylo pinned down. She can kill him now. 

Internal struggle. The Dark One wants her to kill Kylo but Rey can’t. Ruins Rey fights with Dark Rey in the real world. It taunts her, she should let go and submit. She says “No. Not him.” 

The Dark One chuckles. “Then them” and drops about half the Zombified people on the square, just like that. 

This however finally gives Rey enough of a push to get the Dark One out. It “exits” her in a burst of green light. Kylo jumps to her as she nearly collapses - and that’s how they can see the Dark spirit “fly” right into Hux, cowering on the stage. So that’s the crappiest thing that could have happened.

There is a brief exchange of words, basically that they’re all fucked now because Dark Hux will fuck shit up and he also happens to have a fleet. So Coruscant is ripe for the first cleansing. 

Now it’s mayhem. The Zombies start attacking each other, leaving those that are Force sensitive and able to fight the mind control in the middle. Finn spots a Stormtrooper in the middle distance who is obviously not under control. The trooper takes her helmet off, it’s his sister. He runs to her and they try to get off the square together.

**Scene 59 (Int. Space)**

Poe asks over comm what the heck is happening and then the First Order fleet starts shooting down on the planet. Now under the control of evil Hux. Poe decides to get in on the fight. Someone says they’re outnumbered, it’s a suicide mission. Poe says they can’t just stand by and watch this happen. Now is their moment to stand, even if they have to do it alone.

Lando calls in, they’re not alone and BAM more rebel ships and an epic space battle (but now it actually makes sense).

**Scene 60 (Ext/Int Night)**

On the ground Dark Hux is trying to get away and walks into the monument. Rey and kylo fight together, going through a bunch of Storm troopers and weird critter creatures until they finally arrive in the OLD SENATE HALL, in disrepair and sort of ruinous (throwback to the prequels for fanboy tears? it's more likely than you think).

_This is the final fight._

Up top it’s the wild starship pew pew, down on the ground it’s Dark Hux vs. the Force Dyad. Between fighting Dark Hux reveals that he has been all the ancient darkness in the world, he has been Palpatine, then Snoke, he always found a way. And when Kylo struck down Snoke, he slipped into Rey, the strongest in the Force, but not stronger than it. Rey says she’s not alone anymore and then her and Kylo kick into overdrive. 

Some lightning thing happens that basically destroys the Dark Force but also depletes Kylo and Rey’s life force. 

There is a moment where they enter the other dimension again, it’s just them, trying to stay alive long enough to destroy the Dark One. They look at each other, Rey is faltering, she has been weakened in casting the Dark Force out of her. Kylo takes her hand and supplants her, draining himself in the process.

Finally, the Dark Force implodes, Hux drops dead. Rey and Kylo look at each other, they made it!! But after his first smile in forever, Kylo drops to the floor, presumably dead. Rey drops down next to him, frantically trying to revive him.

**Scene 61 (Ext. Night/ Int. Space)**

With the Force command of the Dark One gone, the fighting in the air and on the ground stops, people start coming to. On the ground, Finn and his sister are suddenly again at a chasm. Rebels and civilians group together again, the exterior Force gone but the original conflict is still very much alive. A couple of Stormtroopers have lost their helmets in the fights, revealing their faces. one of them is barely 16, just a child... 

Then Finn takes a stand, talking to his sister but also to the rest. He calls out the senselessness of this war, no one wins, people are indoctrinated to kill each other but what for? There’ll be nothing left eventually and the Stormtroopers! They were just kids when they were taken from their families. He’s not asking them to join the Rebels, or anyone, he’s asking them to put their blasters down and walk away, live their lives. Stop fighting other people’s wars. There is another way!

His sister eyes him and then is eventually the first one to put her blaster down. Then one by one, the other Stormtroopers do the same and also take their helmets off. (They’re all diverse too, yo!)

Now it’s revealed that Poe has patched Finn’s speech through to the ships in the sky as well, hence why the crews on the Star Destroyers stand down, too. On the ground, the civilians and Stormtroopers scatter, leaving Finn and his sister behind. One of the rebels calls out for Finn to join them, he says he’ll find them.

Him and his sister study each other, then hug tight. Then the sister tells Finn that “Finn” isn’t his actual name. He was so small when they took them, he probably forgot but since she’s older, she remembers. Finn asks what his real name is, then. She says “Thibault”. he says he’ll stick with Finn. 

**Scene 62 (Int. Night)**

Inside the old senate hall, Rey still fights for Kylo’s life but she slowly realises he’s gone. Holding his lifeless body, she starts crying. She whispers: “Be with me, be with me.” and then one by one the old Jedis appear as Force ghosts to help her heal Kylo. Luke, Leia, Yoda, Anakin, Obi Wan, QuiGon, Ahsoka, whoever else they can get). Together they bring back Kylo from the Dead ((and if he reaaaalllyyyyy has to die, the rest of the movie has a f*cking funeral at least)).

((Anyway, in my version, he lives.))

Kylo wakes up to see Rey’s face and they hug. 

Rey helps Kylo back up onto his feet, they are both banged up but help each other walk. They walk out of the senate building out into the street where it has started to dawn.

**Scene 63 (Ext. Day)**

The scene transforms, there is another stage in front of the senate building. Poe is on there and gives a speech about new beginnings. The First Order has laid down their arms and the Resistance, too. Together with the remaining governments all over the galaxy, they will start to rebuild peace and start over. 

**Scene 64 (as a montage with Poe’s speech)**

As Poe speaks, he talks about war crimes getting put on trial etc. We see generals being taken to cells, rebuilding started, celebrations. When he’s finished, there’s a big celebration on Coruscant. 

**Scene 65 (Int. Day)**

During that, Finn walks into a cell that holds Rey. He says she won’t get exiled, she was not in control, the trial is just a formality. Rey argues that if Kylo is being exiled, she should be too. Finn asks how she knows about that, Rey says they’re Force bonded. Finn reacts like this might as well be happening. Still, he insists that it’s different.

Rey says she was misled by Dark Forces that she was unable to fight. That’s what happened to Kylo and in the end, he did the right thing. But they both broke too much, there is no place for them there anymore. Finn asks why he gets the feeling that Rey wants to be exiled. Maybe because she wants to be with Kylo?

She tells him he goes by Ben now. And that they still have a purpose to serve. The Dark Force awakened the Force in many beings and they need guidance. Finn asks if they’re gonna restart the Jedi. Rey shakes her head. The Jedi are dead. The Sith, too. There is only the Force now and people need to learn how to use it with nothing but balance and compassion to guide them. At least that’s what she thinks they’re supposed to do. Once the trial’s done, she has a Stoppover to make before Exile.

**Scene 66 (Ext. Sunset)**

Finn and Rey say goodbye. Ben is waiting in the distance by a spaceship. Some warm words. They have both been exiled but Finn will cover for their detour to Dathomir. Waves and hugs, then Rey and Ben fly off and Finn returns to Rose (kiss), his sister and Poe.

**Scene 67 (Int. Night)**

Inside Vader’s palace, Ben and Rey are walking in silence. Rey asks if Ben feels any Dark energy, he says no, it’s not light or dark, it just _is._ Rey agrees. They go through the portal and visit the Oracle. It’s a short scene where rey rehashes her plan, the Oracle gives its blessing. (“I knew getting a girl in on it would do the trick.”)

On their way back, Ben sees a portal and asks Rey to wait a second. He walks through and it’s that memory of him as a kids with young Leia and Han. Han is teaching little Ben how to fight with sticks. Older Ben watches them for a second. Leia sees him and gets closer, when she is in earshot, Rey calls out to Ben from the portal. Leia’s eyes widen in recognition. Before leaving, Ben says: “Don’t give up on me. Everything is possible.”

He rejoins Rey at the portal and they walk on. She asks where they shut exile to and build their training center? Ben says he has an idea.

**Scene 68 (Epilogue)**

Five years later. 

A bunch of “Padawan”-like students burst free from a building into a lush scene. We’re on Naboo, it’s a beautiful day. Rey walks out after the group of kids and smiles. Then yells: “Hey! No training sabers out of the classroom!” and one of the kids runs back sheepishly.

A toddler runs into Rey’s legs from behind, she goes to pick him up. Then Ben joins them and puts his arm around her. They smile at each other and kiss softly. Ben asks if Rey thinks their kid will be safe from the Dark Side. Rey says some might try to use the Force for evil but now that they’ve restored the balance, it’ll be harder to make the darkness stick.

Watching at the tree line, are five figures: Yoda, Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan and Anakin, smiling on.

** THE END **


End file.
